Chapter 39 Study Guide
The Stalemated Seventies 1968-1980
Economic Downturn:
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All of the following are causes of the economic slowdown of the 70s:
o Johnson’s refusal to raise taxes to pay for the Vietnam War and the Great Society programs.
o The declining productivity of the average American worker.
o Sharply rising oil prices and the end of America’s energy independence.
o The competitive advantage of modern German and Japanese manufacturers compared to older
American technologies.
A poor economic performance of the 70s brought an abrupt end to the liberal dream that affluent Americans
could spend its way to social justice.
To control the creeping inflation in the early, Nixon imposed a 90-day wage and price freeze.
Vietnamization:
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Nixon’s policy of withdrawing American troops from Vietnam, while providing aid for the South
Vietnamese to fight the war.
Nixon’s Vietnam policy included all of the following:
o Vietnamization.
o Extension of the war to Cambodia.
o Massive bombing campaigns in Vietnam.
o Creating a draft lottery and reducing draft calls.
The shaky agreement that brought an end to American fighting in January, 1973 represented a thinly
disguised American retreat.
As part of the cease-fire agreement the U.S. withdrew all of its troops.
The people of the U.S. had provided just about everything for South Vietnam including:
o The most sophisticated aircraft.
o Hundreds of thousands of troops.
o Enough time to win.
o Enough money to build its own military.
 The only thing it could not give was the will to win.
The 1973 Paris agreement on Vietnam provided a cease-fire and American withdrawal but did not really end
the civil war among the Vietnamese.
o When the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion of South Vietnam in 1975, the South
Vietnamese government collapsed quickly.
Nixon as President:
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Nixon Doctrine = America’s Asian allies would have to fight their wars without large numbers of American
troops.
Despite Nixon’s political skills and knowledge of foreign policy he harbored deep and bitter resentments
against the liberal establishment that had fought him throughout his career.
Nixon’s valuable asset when he began his presidency in 1969 was his expertise in foreign affairs.
o Nixon’s foreign policy adviser throughout his administration was Henry Kissinger.
Nixon and Cambodia:
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Nixon’s 1970 invasion of Cambodia provoked domestic protests and intensified political clashes between
hawks and doves.
o Hawk = A person who supported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
o Dove = A person who opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Congress did not support Nixon’s bombing campaign of Cambodia. It was conducted in complete secrecy.
War Powers Act = passed in reaction to the secret Cambodia bombing. It restricted presidential use of troops
overseas without congressional authorization.
In response to Congress’s attempt to stop him from continuing the bombing, Nixon repeatedly vetoed
Congress’s bills to halt the attacks.
As a result of the bombings, Cambodia’s economy was ruined and its politics revolutionized.
Results include:
o The killing of student demonstrators at Kent State.
o The repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution by the Senate.
o A deepening of the division between the hawks and doves.
American Soldiers:
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Draft policies largely exempted college students and men with critical skills so the armed forces in Vietnam
were largely composed of the least privileged young Americans.
African Americans were disproportionately represented in the army and accounted for a high share of
combat fatalities.
Soldiers dealt with an enemy who was not always distinguishable, floundering through booby-trapped
swamps and jungles.
o Resulting in drug abuse, mutiny, sabotage, and low morale.
o My Lai Massacre = Site of massacre by American soldiers of Vietnamese civilians.
The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
Nixon Administration:
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The administration still reflected a staunch anticommunist policy when it engaged in covert operations to
overthrow the elected leftist government of Chile.
Nixon’s policy of détente ushered in an era of relaxed tensions between the U.S. and the two leading
communist powers, China and the Soviet Union.
o Détente = Nixon-Ford-Kissinger policy of seeking relaxed diplomacy with the Soviet Union through
trade and arms limitation.
 Henry Kissinger = Talented diplomatic negotiator and leading architect of détente with the
Soviet Union during the Nixon and Ford administrations.
 Gerald Ford = The first appointed vice president of the U.S. who became the first unelected
president.
Nixon and Kissinger (SOS) successfully pressured the Soviet Union into making diplomatic deals with the
U.S. by playing the China card by opening U.S. diplomacy and trade with the Soviets’ rival communist
power.
Nixon personally visits Moscow and Beijing in an attempt to thaw the Cold War in the early 70s.
Supreme Court of the 70s:
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The Supreme Court was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, commonly referred to as the Warren Court.
The Warren Court’s decisions on sexual freedom, rights of accused criminals, and school prayer stirred
fierce attacks against by President Nixon and political conservatives.
o Roe v. Wade was the controversial court decision that declared women’s right to choose abortion.
o Miranda and Escobedo decisions came under sharp attack from many conservatives because they
guaranteed the rights of criminal suspects against mistreatment by the police.
o Griswold v. Connecticut upheld a married couple’s right to use contraceptives based on a right to
privacy.
The Warren Court outraged religious conservatives when it ruled that prayer and Bible reading in public
schools violated the First Amendment.
Milliken v. Bradley ruling held that integration did not have to take place across school district lines in order
to reinforce the division between poorer, minority inner city schools and nearly all-white suburbs.
Bakke case held that racial quotas were unconstitutional but race could be taken into account as one factor in
college admissions.
o Allen Bakke was a California medical school applicant whose case led a divided Supreme Court to
uphold limited forms of affirmative action for minorities.
Warren Burger was Nixon’s appointee as Chief Justice who failed to overturn earlier liberal decisions as
Nixon had hoped.
Philadelphia Plan:
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Required construction trade unions to establish timetables and goals for hiring black apprentices.
The most controversial element of the Plan was the extension of affirmative action to promote the
employment of minorities and women as social groups rather than individuals.
The difference between Johnson’s affirmative action programs and those of Richard Nixon was that Johnson
intended to help individuals, but Nixon conferred privileges on groups.
Welfare Programs:
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When it came to welfare programs, Nixon supported significant expansion in many areas.
All of the following were created during the Nixon presidency:
o The Environmental Protection Agency- powerful new federal agency established to enforce the
Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other similar laws.
 Rachel Carson was an environmental writer whose book, Silent Spring, helped encourage
laws like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
o Supplemental Security Income for the blind, disabled, and elderly.
o Endangered Species Act.
o Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
 The EPA and the OHSA aroused bitter opposition among many business people because they
directly involved the federal government in many aspects of the business decision making.
Pentagon Papers:
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The top-secret Pentagon Papers leaked and published in 1971 exposing the deception that had led the U.S.
into the Vietnam War.
Published by the New York Times.
Daniel Ellsberg was the former Pentagon official who leaked the papers.
Watergate Scandal:
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A Washington office complex whose name was applied to the widespread corruption and crimes of the
Nixon administration.
Republican leaders in Congress joined in calling for Nixon’s resignation after the Watergate tapes were
released.
The list of illegal activities uncovered in the scandal include all of the following:
o Breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters in order to spy on them.
o Using the IRS to harass its enemies.
o Forging documents to discredit Democrats.
o Using the FBI and CIA to cover up previous crimes.
The House Judiciary Committee adopted impeachment articles charging him with:
o Obstruction of justice.
o Abusing the powers of office.
o Contempt of Congress.
Nixon tried to resist giving his taped conversations to the special prosecutor and Congress by claiming he
had executive privilege (confidentiality).
o Executive privilege = the claim that certain information known to the president or the executive
branch of government should be unavailable to Congress or the courts because of the principle of
separation of powers.
Spiro Agnew (VP) resigned on bribing and kickback charges and Nixon appointed Gerald Ford under the
25th Amendment.
o When Nixon resigns, Ford becomes president.
Election of 1972:
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Democratic nominee = George McGovern
o He alienated the traditional-working class backbone of his own Party by appealing to racial
minorities, feminists, and youth.
o He appealed mostly to the antiwar movement.
Republican = Nixon
o Southern strategy was Nixon’s regionally-focused plan to win reelection by curbing the Supreme
Court’s judicial activism, soft-pedaling of civil rights, and opposing school busing to achieve racial
balance.
The burning issue in the ’72 campaign was Vietnam.
Middle East:
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As a result of U.S. support for Israel in 1973, when it was attacked by Egypt and Syria Arabs nations placed
an embargo on oil to America.
America’s strong support for Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War led to an OPEC oil boycott of the U.S. and
a subsequent energy crisis and recession.
o The rise in the price of oil greatly accelerated the inflation that began in the wake of the war.
In response to the energy crisis the following occurred:
o Congress sanctioned the construction of the Alaskan pipeline.
o Congress enacted a 55-mile an hour speed limit.
o Agitation mounted to use more coal and nuclear power.
Women:
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Equal Rights Amendment = “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or any state on the basis of sex.”
o Passed by Congress in 1972, ratified by only 35 states.
o It failed to be ratified by the needed 38 states largely because an antifeminist backlash led by Phyllis
Schlafly stirred sufficient opposition to stop it.
 She was a conservative activist who led a successful to stop the ratification of the ERA.
 This conservative antifeminist movement argued that the ERA would end traditional
workplace protections for women and undermine the family.
While most of the social movements born in the 60s declined or disappeared, one that continued and gained
even greater momentum in the 70s was the feminist movement.
Roe v. Wade declared state laws prohibiting abortion were unconstitutional because they violation a
woman’s right to privacy in her own person.
The first wave of feminism grew out of the abolitionist movement, and the second wave of feminism grew
out of the civil rights movement.
o Nearly all second wave feminists agreed on abortion rights.
Title IX was passed in Congress in 1972 to prohibit sex discrimination in any federally funded education
program or activity.
Gerald Ford as President:
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Gerald Ford’s most controversial action was pardoning Nixon for any known or unknown crimes he had
committed while president.
Helsinki Accords were signed by Ford and 34 other nations and legitimated Soviet-dictated boundaries in
Eastern Europe, while spawning human rights efforts there.
In 1976, Ford won the Republican nomination by defeating a strong challenge from former California
governor Ronald Reagan.
1976 Presidential Election:
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Opposing major party candidates were Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
o Carter wins and enjoys considerable popularity when he won because he was a born-again Southern
Baptist.
 Born-again = The evangelical Christian belief in a spiritual renewal or rebirth, involving a
personal experience of conversion and a commitment to moral transformation.
President Carter:
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Carter quickly found himself in political trouble because he relied too heavily on a small group of Georgia
advisers.
The guiding principle of Carter’s foreign policy was human rights.
o His most spectacular foreign policy achievement was the Camp David agreement between Israel and
Egypt.
o Anwar Sadat was the Egyptian leader who signed the Camp David accords with Israel.
He believed that the fundamental problem of the American economy in the late 70s was U.S. dependence on
foreign oil.
o The oil shocks brought home to Americans the stunning fact that their economy was increasingly
dependent on foreign trade and the global economy.
The first trouble to afflict his foreign policy was the ominous reheating of the Cold War with the Soviet
Union.
o The SALT II Treaty between the Soviet Union and the U.S died in the Senate when the Soviets
invaded Afghanistan.
Carter did the following:
o Called for the renewal of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
o Signed treaties restoring Panamanian sovereignty over the Canal Zone.
o Established formal diplomatic relations with mainland China.
o Helped to settle the Egyptian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
His political support plummeted when he told Americans in the “Malaise Speech” that their excessive
concern for material goods had led to moral and spiritual crisis.
Iranian Hostage Crisis:
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The most humiliating failure during the Iran hostage crisis came when President Carter’s attempted mission
to rescue the hostages ended in disaster.
o His inability to end the Iranian revolutionaries’ seizure of Americans was his greatest foreign policy
failure.
The Iranian revolution against the pro-American shah brought the U.S. into a bitter confrontation with the
new, militant Muslim leaders of that country.